Young  Women  in  the 
Program  of  Christ 


By  MARY  SWAIL  TAFT 

T  was  an  Oriental  palace  a-glitter 
with  barbaric  splendor,  and  from 
a  bevy  of  beautiful  maidens  a 
Jewish  girl  was  chosen  queen.  So 
Esther  came  to  a  crown  and  throne. 
Then  the  emergency  arose,  the  call 
for  a  woman  and  that  woman  the 
queen  —  no  other  could  meet  it  — 
and  the  Jewish  girl  proved  her  real  royalty.  With 
that  splendid  “If  I  perish,  I  perish,”  she  gave  her¬ 
self  in  intercession.  Priestess  was  she  as  well  as 
queen.  And  the  girl  saved  her  people  and  herself. 
Twenty-four  centuries  have  passed,  yet  to  this 
day  a  great  people  scattered  all  over  the  world 
keep  the  feast  of  Purim  as  a  memorial  to  her. 


To  another  girl,  a  shepherdess  among  the  hills 
of  Domremy,  came  a  vision  and  a  voice,  “Come 
it  is  thine  to  deliver  thy  beloved  France  from  the 
enemy.”  And  she  was  not  disobedient  to  the 
heavenly  vision.  Battle-axes  clanged  on  her  armor 
but  she  was  not  afraid,  because  of  the  vision  and 
the  voice.  She  did  not  falter  until  Orleans  was 
taken  and  the  king  crowned  at  Rheims.  It  was  the 
hand  of  the  simple  peasant  girl  that  placed  on  his 
head  the  crown  of  the  people’s  love  and  loyalty, 
and  she,  too,  in  the  thought  of  the  French  nation 
and  of  the  world,  has  been  crowned  together  wTith 
her  king. 

But  there  have  been  other  queens,  careless, 
irresponsible,  who  never  realized  that  royalty  has 
special  obligations,  that  privilege  means  oppor¬ 
tunity,  that  ability  is  answerability.  Marie  An¬ 
toinette,  born  to  the  purple,  began  her  royal 
progress  to  her  royal  bridegroom,  and  an  edict 
was  issued,  banishing  from  the  path  of  the  proces¬ 
sion  the  lame,  the  diseased,  the  poor.  Her  life  was 
to  be  a  bouquet  of  roses,  to  be  enjoyed,  inhaled, 
consumed  on  herself.  Not  a  thorn  was  to  prick 
the  royal  hand,  not  a  moan  of  pain  must  mar  the 
music  of  that  festal  day.  So  the  young  queen 
coquetted  the  fatal  hours  away  and  ransacked 
heaven  and  earth  for  new  amusements,  while 
women  starved  in  the  streets  of  Paris  and  babes 
were  found  frozen  to  death.  The  young  nobles 
followed  the  royal  example,  and  one  of  them  por¬ 
trays  the  life  they  lived:  “We  saw  the  brief  years 
of  our  springtime  wheel  by  in  a  circle  of  such  il¬ 
lusions  and  such  happiness  as  I  think  through  all 
time  was  reserved  for  us  and  us  alone.”  Swift,  re¬ 
morseless,  fell  their  doom.  With  its  own  blood. 


at  the  ghastly  guillotine,  privilege  wiped  out  the 
score  and  paid  its  unrecognized  debt  to  the  un¬ 
privileged.  The  old  Book  had  foretold  the  fate 
of  such:  “Ye  have  lived  delicately  on  the  earth, 
and  taken  your  pleasure;  ye  have  nourished  your 
hearts  in  a  day  of  slaughter.” 

And  there  are  such  today.  The  late  Bishop  of 
Manchester,  being  about  to  preach  a  sermon  to 
young  women,  sent  a  note  to  a  fashionable  girl, 
asking  her  to  write  him  exactly  how  she  ordinarily 
spent  the  day.  This  was  her  answer:  “My  dear 
Lord  Bishop:  —  We  breakfast  at  ten.  I  always 
try  to  be  up  and  ready  for  that.  Then  I  arrange 
the  flowers  in  the  vases,  feed  the  birds  and  write 
some  notes  for  my  mother  or  myself.  Then  it  is 
time  to  get  ready  for  lunch.  After  lunch,  I  drive 
or  make  visits,  and  get  home  for  afternoon  tea. 
Then  it  is  time  to  dress  for  dinner.  After  dinner 
we  go  to  the  opera  or  a  party,  and  I  come  home 
at  one  in  the  morning  so  tired  I  can  scarcely  hold 
up  my  head.” 

And  all  the  time,  He  who  made  us  and  bought 
us  with  His  outpoured  life  blood  is  calling  us  to 
a  great  life.  “And  he  made  us  to  be  a  kingdom 
and  priests.”  “Ye  are  a  royal  priesthood.”  It 
is  young  women  today  who  are  entering  a  kingdom 
of  knowledge  and  power  such  as  an  old-time  Esther 
never  dreamed  of  in  her  wildest  imaginings.  It  is 
American  young  women  today,  the  crown  of  our 
Christian  civilization,  who  are  queens  with  a 
queen’s  power.  Our  Christ  gave  us  this,  and  so 
great  a  gift  it  is  that  we  shall  not  dare  use  it  until 
we  have  placed  ourselves  and  all  our  potentialities 
of  influence  and  service  into  His  love-scarred  hands. 


and  have  asked :  “  What  is  Thy  plan  for  me?  What 
is  my  place  in  Thy  program?” 

From  the  depths  of  our  self-abandonment.  He 
takes  us  to  the  heights  of  His  vision  and  we  see 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  —  His  world,  for  which 
He  paid  the  price.  We  hear  a  voice,  “Go  tell  them 
all  of  Me.  These  I  must  bring  to  the  safety  and 
shelter  of  the  fold,  and  I  must  do  it  through  you. 
My  feet  walk  no  more  the  streets  of  the  earth  world, 
so  it  must  be  your  feet  that  run  to  publish  the 
good  news,  or  you  cripple  Me.  Your  lips  must 
speak  the  message  of  good  will,  or  you  silence  Me.” 
His  sacrificial  work  completed,  now  in  confidence 
He  expects  us  to  carry  out  His  program.  We  must 
not  fail  Him,  we  dare  not  fail  Him.  The  best  in 
us  is  roused  to  answer  to  that  mighty  trust,  “Oh, 
make  me  worthy  of  Thy  great  expectations  of  me!” 

On  the  height  of  vision  with  Him,  we  see  girlhood 
in  non-Christian  lands,  a  poor,  paltry  thing,  the 
cheapest  thing  in  the  realm  of  human  possession. 
In  these  lands  girls  are  not  taught  to  read,  to  write, 
to  think  —  they  are  not  recognized  as  human 
creatures.  A  fundamental  doctrine  of  vaunted 
Buddhism  is  that  women  cannot  be  saved.  Buddha 
was  promised  that  he  should  not  be  born  in  hell, 
he  should  not  be  born  as  vermin,  he  should  not  be 
bom  as  a  woman.  India’s  “  so-called  sacred  places 
—  those  veritable  hells  on  earth  —  have  become 
the  graveyard  of  countless  child-widows  and 
orphans.”  So  says  Pundita  Ramabai. 

To  the  Chinese  girl,  in  this  very  day  of  ours, 
has  come  not  simply  an  awakening  but  a  resurrec¬ 
tion  from  a  death  swoon,  and  it  is  the  command  of 
Jesus  that  something  be  given  her  to  eat.  She  is 
famished  for  mental  food,  famished  for  heart-love. 


f 


famished  most  of  all  for  the  Bread  of  Life,  broken 
into  portions  suited  to  her  need.  To  us  comes  the 
old  challenge  from  Esther’s  day,  “Who  knoweth 
whether  thou  art  come  to  thy  kingdom  for  such  a 
time  as  this?”  Young  China  hurls  at  us  the  new 
challenge,  “God  has  melted  old  China.  Who  will 
mold  the  new?”  It  is  our  unparalleled  opportunity 
to  help  build  an  empire,  mold  a  nation,  and  yonder 
found  the  kingdom  of  God. 

In  less  civilized  lands,  we  see  girls  bought  and 
sold,  things  of  barter,  draft  animals  to  plough  and 
till,  hewers  of  wood,  drawers  of  wTater.  So  dark 
the  picture,  we  are  tempted  to  ask,  “O  Christ,  do 
You  not  care?”  And  the  answer  comes,  “I  must 
show  My  caring  through  you.”  If  we  fail  Him, 
it  is  to  them  as  if  He  did  not  care. 

u 

•  •  • 

Hath  made  me  queen,  and  royalty  must  give 
WTith  lavish  hand.  Largesse,  largesse  they  cry 
Who  follow*  regal  steps.  If  I  would  live 
Right  queenly,  help  to  none  I  must  deny. 

Love,  faith,  hope,  tenderness,  the  gifts  I  bring. 
Noblesse  oblige.  I  will  give  like  a  queen.” 

Hath  made  us  priests  —  a  royal  priesthood. 
Long  before  Christ  came  to  elevate  and  sanctify 
womanhood,  there  were  priestesses.  In  the  old 
Roman  days,  the  guardians  of  the  sacred  fire  —  the 
fire  on  the  altar  that  must  never  go  out,  day  or 
night  —  were  maidens,  the  vestal  virgins.  None 
other  received  such  high  honor,  nor  any  such  stern 
punishment.  If  one  deserted  her  post  she  was 
buried  alive,  amid  public  mourning.  The  fire  must 
be  kept  burning  —  it  was  the  most  precious  pos¬ 
session.  The  altar  fire  in  the  home,  the  church. 


the  community  —  the  guardianship  of  the  great 
Christ  ideal  of  world-wide  service,  —  is  entrusted 
in  a  peculiar  sense  to  young  women.  As  of  old, 
^Eneas  bore  the  fire  from  Troy  to  Italy,  so  some  of 
us  will  be  called  to  the  splendid  task  of  carrying  the 
fire  Jesus  came  to  send  on  earth,  to  dark  lands, 
numb  in  death-like  torpor.  But  many,  many 
more  will  be  as  truly  called,  chosen,  ordained  to  be 
priestesses  of  the  sacred  flame  in  the  homeland. 
No  less  honored  a  place  is  ours,  for  it  will  take  just 
as  lofty  consecration,  as  high  courage,  as  clear- 
visioned  faith,  as  unstinted  pouring  out  of  life. 
Recall  Nansen’s  dedication  of  his  book,  The  Farthest 
North:  “To  her  who  christened  the  ship  and  had 
the  courage  to  stay  at  home.” 

Mills,  the  pioneer  of  the  modern  missionary 
movement,  leader  of  the  Haystack  Meeting,  never 
went  as  a  missionary.  He  was  denied  the  great 
passion  of  his  life,  but  out  of  his  burning  devotion  at 
home  came  the  American  Bible  Society,  to  bless 
all  lands. 

Some  one  has  compared  us  whose  work  is  at 
home  to  “the  other  wise  man.”  The  three  went 
their  way  and  saw  the  manger  and  the  Child. 
The  other  one,  held  by  pressing  duties,  never  reached 
Bethlehem,  but  to  him  was  vouchsafed  an  especial 
vision  of  his  King  and  an  especial  message. 

A  few  flaming  hearts,  a  few  lips  touched  with  the 
embers  from  His  altar,  can  set  on  fire  that  great 
body  of  young  life  in  the  church  —  the  Sunday- 
school.  It  is  ready  to  be  captured  by  the  Christ 
ideal,  and  now  is  the  time.  Here  are  to  be  found 
the  recruits  for  the  field,  here  the  leaders  on  the 
home  base  without  which  world-wide  operations 
will  fail.  A  body  of  young  people  full  of  the 


passion,  the  fiery  energy,  the  daring  audacity  of 
youth,  will  waste  their  magnificent  possibilities  on 
paltry  ends  unless  some  of  their  number  have  seen 
and  been  captivated  by  the  eternal  worth  while. 
The  kingdom  for  the  King  alone  presents  the  suffi¬ 
cient  motive  to  employ  every  atom  of  physical 
strength,  every  cell  of  brain  force,  every  drop  of 
red  heart’s  blood.  It  is  ours  to  announce  His 
program,  and  to  make  it  fascinating,  captivating, 
irresistible.  Why,  why  should  any  young  woman 
live  in  a  little  segment  of  life  when  she  may  know 
the  greatness,  the  infinite  satisfaction  of  world 
service?  There  are  groups  of  Chinese  girls,  who 
today  attempt  the  Hallelujah  Chorus,  in  radiant 
prophecy  of  the  time  when  their  hands  shall  help 
bring  Jesus  into  His  large  inheritance  in  a  true 
Celestial  Kingdom.  We  also  may  know  the 
gracious  fellowship  of  joining  with  the  world’s 
young  life  in  placing  on  His  head  the  crown  of  all 
humanity’s  love. 

Privileged  young  women  in  home  churches,  will 
you  not  enter  your  kingdom,  yours  by  special 
appointment  to  our  King?  Will  you  not  take  the 
ordination  of  His  pierced  hands  as  priestess  of  the 
Christ  ideal?  Will  you  not  say  in  a  quiet  moment 
apart  with  Him,  “I  take  the  place  assigned  me  in 
Thy  program”? 


PRICE  TWO  CENTS 


woman’s  foreign  missionary  society 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
PUBLICATION  OFFICE 
BOSTON,  MASS. 

(Reprint,  1916) 


